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Old 29-Mar-2007, 20:42
fiona bramble fiona bramble is offline
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Default Re: Present Perfect Continuous

Quote:
Originally Posted by saidon View Post
I am confused with the Present Perfect Continuous Tense. It is used to express something that is ongoing, continuous and already been completed at the time of speaking or writing.

For eg. The bus has been waiting for one hour.

Does it mean that the bus is still continuouing its wait?

Hi Saidon
The present perfect continuous is used for:
1. to emphasize the duration of an event (often includes "since", "ever since", "for").
Your sentence emphasizes the "hour" (duration) but it may or may not continue to wait; we don't know or don't care, which is why we use this structure. It is the "hour" that has completed and that is what we are talking about, nothing else.
2. to connect a continuous activity in the recent past to the present:
e.g. Her eyes are red. She has been crying.
In this case, she probably has just finished crying but we can see "evidence" of her actions.

Hope that isn't too much information!
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